Thursday, December 15, 2011

Handwriting

Question: How should
handwriting be taught?

Answer/Quote: “Although
there is a school of thought in the U.K. which advocates cursive writing from
the beginning, there is no doubt that the great majority of teachers teach
print first and then, with students of about 7 or 8 years, progress to cursive
writing.”

Quote: “I align
myself with those who prefer the two stage policy for the [following]
reasons….Print is more legible and corresponds and relates to print in books.”
P. 28.

Comment: Should handwriting be taught at all today in
the era of keyboards and voice-activated software?

First,
legibility is important I would like to have a penny for every time I have
victimized myself by my own illegible handwriting. The amount of time I have
spent going back to sources because I can’t read my own handwriting infuriates
me. Wasted energy and time.

Second: Writing
tests and tests with open-ended questions that do not use computers require
handwriting—legible handwriting.

Third: voice
activation, like Dictaphones, will never replace excellent writing in standard
English. Too much like informal English with repetition, poor word choice,
verbosity, etc.

Fourth, if you
can’t write legibly in cursive, use print. You can write as quickly in print as
you can in cursive. The key is legibility. RayS.